


Scarlet Inertia: We're Not ALL Bad

by The_Mouse_of_Anon



Category: Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Blue Beetle, DCU (Comics), Young Justice
Genre: Khaji Ad's kind of quiet for most of this one, Multi, Supervillains with a healthy relationship, Thad and Red have no filter, Thad doesn't handle serious flirting really well, They're actually kind of cute, even if they're both swearing like sailors, looooots of swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2018-07-14 08:17:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7161980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Mouse_of_Anon/pseuds/The_Mouse_of_Anon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scarlet Scarab and Inertia have been friends for a while now since Red ended up in Thad's reality. The thing is, Red has been falling for Thad, and falling hard. </p>
<p>A short story about what is quite possibly the world's most awkward first kiss (according to Thad).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scarlet Inertia: We're Not ALL Bad

**Author's Note:**

> This drabble/fic/thing came about from RPing with my friend Dizsasqua on tumblr and the two of us going on a Scarlet Scarab/Inertia binge and musing over how good a pairing/triad they make (kind of like Jaime, Khaji Da, and Bart that way). Cue my thinking about these two/three supervillains having an actually healthy relationship and musing about their first kiss this morning, and BOOM– this ficlet is the result. I hope you enjoy. (Also, since Scarlet Scarab comes from a mirror world his name is different from Jaime’s– Jacobo– and the scarab’s name is Khaji Ad rather than Khaji Da. That is all. Plus there’s a large amount of swearing.)

Red looked at Thad. He was so close, it wouldn’t be hard to reach out to him with his perfect hair, those perfect eyes, and— fuck— that wicked smirk that was making it feel like his heart had just dropped into his stomach. Nope, nope, nope. He wasn’t going to admit that, wasn’t going to admit it as he saw Thad’s smirk slowly widen into a grin. _Fuck it all, keeping the armor up is supposed to keep shit like this from happening._ But no, nope, leave it to Thad— goddamned fucking gorgeous as hell Thad— to be able to tell when the hell Red was blushing even if the armor kept it hidden. _Fuck._

“Take a picture, it’ll last longer,” Thad snarked, his tone playful.

_Goddamn it. This is not fucking fair._ Red had never been so freaking smitten in his life. And the idea of admitting it to this jerk? Definitely not fair. “What can I say? You’ve got a face that can cause car-wrecks.” And _oh god damn it!_ That _was not_ supposed to be a _come on!_

Thad laughed and leaned in closer to the armored latino man. “Now Red, some might think that sounds dangerously close to you saying you think I’m hot.”

“Oh fuck off,” Red answered without really meaning it. Judging by the way Thad gave an amused snort, the speedster wasn’t about to take the comment seriously. And then of course there was the fact that Thad was closer, in his personal space really, and if he got any closer to him on the couch he’d be practically on top of Red— and _WOW that conjured up some mental images!_ Yep, Red was definitely glad he was armored up and the wings weren’t out. Didn’t need his and Khaji Ad’s wings fluttering a mile a minute, or _other_ reactions to some of those thoughts. Nope. Didn’t need it at all. After a few moments of Thad clearly having no inclination to back off, Red cautiously said, “Hey Thad, mind if I ask you something?”

“Hm?” the speedster lazily answered— and _damn it_ the way he was looking at Red was _really_ not helping.

“I’m serious,” he said, trying to prompt a decent answer.

Thad rolled his eyes, and then he got a particularly devious look and _grinned_. “I don’t know, Hack, what are you trying to ask?”

Red scowled. He _hated_ being called ‘hack’. It didn’t matter how close to accurate the pronunciation was to part of his first name— Jacobo— he still hated it. No one called him Jac, precisely because too many people insisted on mangling it into ‘hack’. If it had been anyone else he would have punched them outright at the very least. Or sliced their face open. Whichever came first. But with Thad? No, instead Red grumbled out, “Don’t call me ‘hack’.”

The blond speedster snickered and answered with, “Whatever you say… Hack.”

“Shut up.”

“No.”

“Fuck off,” Red snarled. He was _not_ going to let those damn eyes or that incredibly sexy smirk sway him back into asking what he’d been thinking about asking. Nope. Wasn’t gonna happen.

“So,” Thad said while trying not to laugh, “What did you want to ask me… Hack?”

“You keep fucking calling me that and I’m not talking to you for a month _pendejo_.” He was trying to stay angry. He really was.

“Well how can I know what you want to know if you don’t ask me?” Red started to open his mouth to answer, and then Thad added, “…Hack.”

Red facepalmed. “What the fuck is wrong with you? You’re such an asshole. I try to ask your _gringo_ ass a serious question, and then you give me this shit. You _know_ I hate being called that.” Thad laughed again, though this time he curled in on himself as he laughed, putting him just a little more into Red’s personal space. Why was it so damned hard to stay mad at him? Oh right, because Red couldn’t seem to stop admiring how fucking drop dead gorgeous Thad was. _Fucking hell._

“Oh man, that shouldn’t be so damned funny,” Thad said as he pretended to wipe away a tear from laughter.

Red gave an aggravated sigh. “You’re such an asshole,” he grumbled. He wanted to cross his arms, but Thad was close enough that doing so might have been a little awkward.

“Okay, okay, what’d you want to ask me?” Thad still looked ready to laugh, but he was clearly trying to keep it together and be serious, even if his eyes were lit up with mirth.

_Damn it._ Red had begun to hope that Thad would have let it go, that he could have just let the question drop. Sure, the two of them had had their playful mock-flirting which had been going on for a while now, but that wasn’t serious. It was more of a dumb game to fuck with people’s heads. No one ever expected a couple of supervillains to start flirting and making incredibly raunchy comments in a fight— it tended to throw heroes (and everyone else) off. So yeah, there had been times when Thad had complemented his ass or made cracks about having wild sex in public during those fights, but it hadn’t been _serious_. It wasn’t the sort of thing where Red _knew_ or _could know_ beyond a shadow of a doubt if Thad was actually attracted to him. Hence, the need for his question.

“C’mon, we don’t have all day. Do you have any idea how long this wait is to me? You’re killing me here. A minute is like a dog-year for me,” Thad said with a fake whine.

Red snorted with laughter. Leave it to the damned speedster to get him to laugh by poking fun at his own weird time-sense. “You are _so_ not helping right now.”

“Alright, alright! Shutting up! Tell me. Ask me. Whatever.”

Red took a calming breath and felt that wing-flutter thrum from Khaji Ad against his spine. Yep, definitely glad the wings weren’t out. After what felt like forever, Red was finally able to force out, “Can I… Can I kiss you?” He was embarrassed by how quiet he was as he asked.

Thad’s eyebrows shot up. He cocked his head to the side and seemed to be searching Red’s eyes for something. Whatever it was that he was looking for, it seemed the speedster found it. “One hell of a question Red. I don’t kn-”

“Forget it,” Red said as he started to turn away from Thad. Of course Thad wouldn’t be up for that. Thad had issues with being touched. The only way he ever got remotely close to Red was when they were goofing off and playing up the joke of ‘of course we’d screw each other into the ground out in the open in a park— does that _offend_ you?’ Red didn’t know what he had been thinking. With as many issues as Thad had with being touched there was just no way he’d be up for anything serious. “We can forget I said anything,” he added as he went to get up. Thad blocked his way off the couch, his hand on the couch arm next to Red. “Thad, what-”

Before Red could finish his sentence Thad lunged forward, seizing hold of the sides of Red’s armored face before kissing him ravenously. Red’s eyes flew wide open. _Thad just_ —Thad _just…_ Red’s eyes slid shut as he got with the program, barely repressing a blissful moan as he gave in to Thad’s greedy open-mouthed kissing, one of his hands finding its way into Thad’s— _fucking perfect_ — hair and the other coming to rest on the speedster’s upper arm. He had no idea when he’d fallen back against the arm of the couch with Thad almost on top of him, and he didn’t really care. This… This was perfect. This was worth not having a way back to his home reality. This was worth everything.

When they finally separated they both sat there, trying to catch their breath. Funny, a speedster needing to catch their breath after just kissing. “Holy fuck,” Red croaked after a few minutes.

“Fuck,” Thad agreed breathlessly. For a moment or two more they just blissfully watched each other, and then Red saw it— the moment when the switch flipped in Thad’s mind as he realized what he’d just done. Thad turned beet-red, and after a moment or two buried his face in Red’s chest with a slightly panicky, “Oh my _god!_ ”

Seeing as how Thad wasn’t bolting away, Red took that as a good sign and looped his arms around the speedster’s shoulders. “You’re a pretty good kisser _ese_ ,” he affectionately teased, eliciting an undignified squeak from the blond.

“Shut _up_ ,” came the muffled groan from Thad. “I can not _believe_ I just did that! _What the fuck?!_ What the ever-loving _fuck_ was I thinking? Oh my _fucking god!_ I can’t— I can _not_ believe I just— _oh my fucking GOD!_ ”

Red laughed. He couldn’t help it. Normally Thad completely had his shit together and never was at a loss for words. This though? The way he was completely going to pieces and turning almost as red as Red and Khaji Ad’s armor? _This_ was _fucking adorable_. “Don’t tell me that was your first kiss.”

Thad pulled back to lightly hit his chest with the undignified squawk of, “Shut the fuck _up_ Jac! You _know_ I wouldn’t have kissed anyone else! With _my_ issues?! What the ever-loving _fuck_?!”

Red grinned, barely repressing laughter as he said, “Well _lo siento_ , but you kiss like a fucking god.” Funny, he didn’t mind the use of his actual name this time. And if this was the reaction he’d get whenever he was affectionate to Thad, then being called Jac from time to time was worth it.

If it was possible Thad turned even redder, and buried his face in Red’s chest again. “Oh my fucking god… _Shut up_ ,” he groaned. “I’m gonna fucking die of embarrassment at this rate and it’s gonna be all your fault. You and your stupid fucking _everything_.”

Red snickered. “Nice vocabulary there _ese_.”

“Shut the fuck up, you jerk.”

Red was silent for a few moments, content with having Thad in his arms (even if said speedster was about as red as was humanly possible). Finally he said, “Can I ask you another question?”

“ _Whaaaat_?” Thad almost whined.

“Do you want it to be serious?”

Thad peeked up at him, vulnerable and thoroughly embarrassed. “Stop looking at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like your face is gonna crack off because you look like a sappy smitten idiot.”

Red smirked, “Your fault. It’s you I’m looking at.”

“Oh my _gooooddd_. Stop saying shit like that!”

“Well? Do you?” Red asked, ignoring Thad’s complaints for the time being.

Thad raked a hand through his hair, clearly uncomfortable with saying what he wanted to say. Finally he grumbled, “Okay. Fine. Yes, I want it to be serious. _Oh my fucking GOD_ — stop looking at me like that!”

“Why?”

“Because it makes me want to kiss you again, you fucking _jerk_!”

Red laughed again. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“Jac, I hate you so much right now,” Thad grumbled without any heat to his words.

Khaji Ad chose that moment to make one of his all-too-common chittering noises from Red’s spine. Red snickered.

Thad had a feeling he was going to regret asking, but he asked anyway. “What did the bug say?”

“Oh nothing much,” Red grinned, “just that he agrees with me that you’re incredibly fucking hot and you’re adorable as hell when you blush.”

“Oh _my GOOOODDDDD_! You’re _both_ completely fucking _horrible!_ ”


End file.
